Google must be in Germany names out of the autocomplete functionality will be eliminated as persons are lawfully rely on infringement on individual rights. This is evident from a lawsuit from someone who is in the autocomplete came to be linked with scientology and fraud.
In may 2010, found a German that Google his name that is automatically complemented with ‘scientology’ and ‘fraud’. He stepped thereon to the court for it to be removed from autocomplete and a claim for compensation. The Court of appeal in Karlsruhe, germany has now ruled that Google names from autocomplete should be eliminated as a persons legitimate infringement on individual rights, such as defamation, claiming.
The court did not go so far as to Google the duty to impose order in advance to avoid autocomplete infringes on individual rights. The zoekbedrijf is not responsible if the notification about the infringement to Google is disclosed. Google has always been the view that it is not responsible, because autocomplete combinations of words on the basis of algorithms, which is drawn from the search behavior of internet users.
The Court has remanded the case to the Court of Appeal. That should decide whether Google is obliged to pay the compensation. It is not the first time that Google’s autocomplete is the subject of a lawsuit in Europe. In France it was Google convicted of defamation after the name of a man was supplemented with ‘satanist’ and ‘rapist’.